AMD to kill Off "VISION" APU branding

Alexey Zhukov

10:04, January 2, 2013

For two generations of accelerated processing units (APUs) -- Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.'s (AMD) CPU+GPU single die affordability/mobility-focused solution -- the word "VISION" has been tacked on to indicate that the chip is an APU. The branding first popped up in the Llano/Zacate/Ontario/Desna and continued with the second-gen Trinity/Brazos 2.0/Hondo designs.

SemiAccurate reports, though, that the VISION brand is about to be killed off (for now AMD's VISION brand homepage appears alive, but that could soon change).

The APUs will simply snip the designation -- for example "AMD VISION A10" will become "AMD A10". The site doesn't appear entirely happy with this change -- Leo Yim complains:

At the end, the move to the new branding doesn’t benefit the customers much, or help to make better purchase decisions. Besides the respective price points for different APU platforms, nothing substantial is achieved with this purely marketing decision.

But he acknowledges that the move does simplify things and doesn't have that big an impact ultimately.

AMD recently rolled out its Piledriver-core based FX series chips (code-name: Vishera). A mid-range Piledriver-based APU dubbed Richland is also expected to be incoming, based on roadmap leaks.

A new 28 nm low-power APU core (for the A6/A4/E2/E1 models) will land in mid-2013. Code-named Kabini, AMD has said that the power-efficient chip will pack a more-powerful DirectX 11.1-compatible GPU core. AMD is rumored to be relying primarily on ball-grid-array (BGA) designs for Kabini, nixing upgrade routes.